Friday, April 23, 2010

Weather Story Looms As Friday TV Coverage Begins

It's a scenario that fans, teams and officials dread. While Friday signals the beginning of the TV coverage from Talladega, Saturday is on the minds of many.

Strong storms that have already produced severe weather across the Midwest are moving into the Southeast. Talladega is right in the path of this system.

When NASCAR gets together for a big weekend, there is a lot of equipment and manpower that is positioned at the track. Between the staff operating the facility, the crews working on the race cars and the large contingent of TV folks, there are a lot of people to take care of if severe weather threatens.

The Friday coverage begins at 11:30AM with Nationwide Series qualifying. This is another weekend where ESPN just covers the race, so SPEED will handle this session. Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond and Hermie Sadler have done a solid job again this season of covering a series where all the actual races are telecast by ESPN.

The Sprint Cup Series practice sessions are at 2 and 3:30PM ET. The NASCAR on FOX team will handle that coverage on SPEED with NASCAR Live programs before, between and after the two practices. There is usually a lot to talk about when practice is going on at Talladega.

5PM brings the ARCA race on SPEED with Rick Allen and Phil Parsons on the call. Wendy Venturini and Jim Tretow will handle pit road duties. This is always a time when lots of deep breaths are taken as many of the ARCA drivers are not very experienced with a speedway the size of Talladega.

The TV day ends with Trackside at 7:30 and another new Hall of Fame biography program at 8:30PM. This time, it is Bill France Jr. who is the subject of the show. This series from the NASCAR Media Group has been outstanding.

The weather today at the track is sunny skies with temps in the high 80's. As we mentioned earlier, all that will be changing quickly as the storm front approaches on Friday night. While the ARCA teams will be gone, that will still leave about eighty Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series teams at the track.

This post will host your comments about the Friday TV coverage from Talladega. To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

44 comments:

Here in Houston it's already raining this morning. Has anyone noticed the starting lineup of the ARCA race for tonight. Larry McReynolds' son, Brandon, is starting 18th. Hope he has a good race too. Maybe the weather will sunny and clear tomorrow - the forecasters have been known to be wrong before . . . . . .

Yesterday's weather action in west Texas and Kansas plus what is shaping up for today might seem like nothing to what is setting up for Alabama, Mississippi, and central Tennessee on Saturday. The Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service is actually using the words "tornado outbreak" in their outlook for the 24th (which is pretty strong language for the SPC).

Let us all hope for the best and, most of all, for the safety of everybody in that area whether they are at the race or elsewhere. For those of you in the area...better make sure the batteries in your NOAA Weather Radio are fresh because you're probably going to need them.

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has issued a "Moderate Risk" of severe thunderstorms for a good portion of the southern US for Saturday, April 24th. The next outlook update for tomorrow is due by 1:30 PM eastern/12:30 PM central today. Looks like it could be a potentially dangerous situation tomorrow. Anyone at the track needs to keep an eye to the sky during the day and into the evening on Saturday.

@Vicky--yes I look forward to watching Brandon :). Brian's pulled out every trick he can if he can make the rain go away he will :).

@JD--yes Happy had some tweets that expressed how upset he was over the media and their "sources" :(

@TRL--stay safe. We've only had one storm here that scared me to death! It was a few years ago and I didn't get to sleep until after 5 am when things finally calmed down. I was listening hard for that train sound that AM! There was rain with very strong wind!

Harvick being mad at the media for anonymous sources on a story that turns out to be true is pretty funny, just like Newman's wife a couple of years ago when they were reporting that Ryan was going to Stewart. I imagine that Harvick's real ire is Shell keeping him at RCR last year when he had a chance to go to Stewart too.

I see where NASCAR and Talladega Superspeedway officials are going to meet at 3:00p.m. and discuss closing the track on Saturday. I'd say by the time today's ARCA race starts, we'll have info what the agenda is for Saturday.

Rick Allen needs to find a thesaurus. PROBLEMS! is really getting old. Something is off in the booth today. It gives me chills when Rick has to ask the analysts questions, instead of just calling play-by-play and letting an analysts elaborate. Memories of Dr. Punch.

I thought Rick struggled a bit today...when he asked about deal making there was just silence for a bit. I mean, I'm not familiar with ARCA, but I imagine they don't hook up quite the way Cup guys do. Happy for young Dakota.

Anon 6:07....did you really think a piece produced for the Hall of Fame opening was going to be critical? I'm not saying it's right, I get your point, but I just wouldn't have expected it to be anything but respectful because of the occasion. I would guess there are other sources out there not so one sided.

JD, the front is actually just to the West of me -- here in Palestine. It's all the humidity out in front of it that's the problem. Heavy rain is in Mississippi right now. We're under a severe t'storm watch and tornado watch right now. And all of this is moving East.

Schrader like always is a great addition to the booth I wish they'd add him permanently :).

I agree JD Tornadoes are nothing to play with! While you never know how hard a hurricane will hit until it hits land with tornadoes they're very unpredictable. It can go down a street and leave one side untouched and the other looking like match sticks. I hope nothing comes but if it does that everyone stays safe and smart.

I have a solution. Why not have a doubleheader on Sunday with the Sprint Cup race at noon (ET)/9:00 AM(PT) and then have the Nationwide race at 5:00PM (ET)/ 2:00PM (PT)? While we may not have the invocation and the national anthem that day, at least we can get both races in.

Glen1 - glad to hear that someone else is dissatisfied with the "new" TWC format. I tune in for weather, not movies and I really hate waking up with Al Roker. All of this extraneous stuff goes along with my complaints about the race coverage. Just show me the race, weather, history (for what used to be the history channel), Speed and I'm a lot happier.

For all of you in the area expected to be in the tornado or bad weather zone, I'm wishing you all the luck and be safe. Tornados, campers and RVs are a bad mix.

I think they shut Dover down a few years ago for part of the race weekend because of a hurricane. Not much high ground in Delaware!

fortunately TWC is doing what it's supposed to do this morning. And Betty's not being ditzy today. They did mention 'dega earlier, saying things looked much better for tomorrow's race, they just put up a level 9 warning for parts of Alabama.

When they started giving storms an identity (like 'Northeast nightmare' or whatever), I knew we were in trouble. I don't watch in the morning, but I was glad they moved Abrams there...much too perky for the evenings...